Fw: [at-l] Water on a thru hike

[rambleon@email.unc.edu (Jeremy Reiter)]

DaRedhead pondered:
> A question for the thru hikers out there.  Was obtaining water ever such a
> problem that it was dangerous or caused serious problems on your hike?  Thanks
> in advance.

Sort of. My worst day for water last year was in Pennsylvania (shocker). Starting a
bit before the Lehigh Gap area, i hiked a 20 miler with 2 quarts of water on a very
hot day (mid to upper 90's). The only water sources that day were at least a mile
off the trail, and my policy was to only take a two mile sidetrip for beer,
cigarettes, Mt. Dew, or ice cream. All the other water sources were dried up. I was
hoping for free hallucinations, but alas i was just extremely parched, weak, and in
a sour mood when i finally arrived at the shelter. I immediately started to make the
walk down to the spring. The first spring was dry, and had been for a week according
to the sign someone had posted. "Try spring number two" it advised. So i kept
walking down the path, and finally got to spring number two. It was dry as well.
Concern started to increase. Hoping that the third spring was a charm, i kept on
walking until i finally got there. Luckily, it was running. If it hadn't been, i
would have been hating it. Dangerous? Very possibly. 

One of my hiking partners also had a "bad water day" in PA. He had run out of water
well before Port Clinton. He decided to stop a little before Port Clinton because
his map indicated a water source off a side trail. The blue-blazes weren't marked
very well, and he probably tacked at least 2 additional miles onto his daily total
by stumbling down a couple different ones in a vain search for aqua. He eventually
resorted to sucking leaves in hope that a little water from a previous rain still
remained. He got the free hallucinations, as well as troubling dreams that involved
much water and him not being able to drink any of it. He was a site for sore eyes
when he caught up with us in Port Clinton the next day. 

Finally, i almost split my head completely open after taking a digger going down the
STEEP, slick, rock steps that led to the water source at the shelter about 9 miles
north of Duncannon (Blue Mountain Shelter maybe?). I guess that can fall under the
"danger obtaining water" category.

For a frame of reference, i went through Pine Grove Furnace (southern PA) on July
18th. PA was definitely not "water-friendly" last year during that time period. So
beware if you traverse the state in the middle of the summer in a year when rainfall
is not at an above-average level.

Walk with aqua,

-Rambleon- 

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